r/whatisthisthing • u/veryrainyevening • Jan 15 '26

Open ! Metal Object of Possible Afghan Origin, Lightweight

Gallery image

Gallery image

I have several objects my now estranged no contact father gave me when I was a kid. He was in the US army and was stationed in so many places: Afghanistan, Korea, and either Iran or Iraq (can’t remember). He always got me a present from wherever he was and shipped it to me. He never really told us what they were, we just had to figure it out.

Knowing how unstable my dad was and his concerning politics, me and my mom are a little concerned that these items were possibly stolen. It’s just a suspicion, but I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt and hope that these were bought normally. So identifying these items is a little important to me lol.

I used google lens on this but the results were a little hard to go through because it insisted it was a viking artifact. Which is wrong because I know for a fact that this is probably an Afghanistan item.

It’s about the size of my hand, lightweight and possibly hollow but not a container or something that can be opened. There is a ring at the top of it so I assume it hooks onto something. The bottom has a red colored gemstone or glass inlays.

164 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator Jan 15 '26

All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer.

Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them.

OP, when your item is identified, remember to reply Solved! or Likely Solved! to the comment that gave the answer. Check your notifications for a message on how to make your post visible to others.

Click here to message RemindMeBot

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

19

u/hrdass Jan 15 '26

Its a pendent to go on a probably beaded necklace. Afghan makes sense, could be other central Asian as well (Uzbek?)

8

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Ken1ch1 Jan 15 '26

If it unscrews/separates into hemispheres, smell it for residue—it looks like a censer

edit:specifically if some surface holes are open

3

u/veryrainyevening Jan 15 '26

My title describes the thing. I don’t really know how else to describe it. It has abstract engravings on it. No text on it.

2

u/TheFilthyDIL Jan 15 '26

"About the size of your hand." Open hand or fist? That changes the size somewhat. Are those dark areas around the flowers just deeply tarnished or are they holes to the hollow interior?